Recently small media streaming devices has become common on the marketplace. These devices stream media wirelessly from the internet and user wireless remote controls to control the device. Turning now to FIG. 1, two examples 100 of media streaming devices 110, 120 are shown. These very low-cost pocket-size set-top-boxes or media sticks integrate a wireless communications system in order to communicate with other devices, such as gateways, PCs, routers, remote controls, smartphones, tablets, etc. The antennas are mostly embedded in the housing, as is shown with the first media device 110 but some devices are equipped with an external antenna as is shown with the second media device 120. External antennas afford better wireless transmission performance than the embedded because of a better radiation efficiency and a better radiation pattern of the antenna.
Generally, wireless antennas embedded in small electronic devices, such as USB dongle devices, exhibit very poor performance, in terms of gain, radiation efficiency and radiation pattern. The size of the small electronic device does not enable optimal antenna design as the smaller the size of an antenna with respect to the radiating wavelength, the lower its radiation efficiency. Antenna electromagnetic behavior is very sensitive to conductive objects in its close environment, such as interface connectors, circuit shielding covers, cables, and shielded equipment housings to which the small device is connected. In addition, embedded antennas are often printed on the main circuit board. When a device with an embedded antenna is placed in the back side of a display, the wireless connection could be drastically impaired because of a lack of “visibility”.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a compact, low cost, external antennas which can be configured by a user, in a way to avoid these undesirable wireless performance issues and to offer a more flexible way to improve the coverage performance according the conditions of visibility of the device.